Miller, Broncos Blank Ball State to Begin MAC Tournament - Western Michigan University Athletics (2024)

AVON, Ohio – The No. 2 seed Western Michigan baseball team opened the 2024 MAC Tournament with an 8-0 win over No. 3 seed Ball State on Thursday evening at Crushers Stadium in Avon, Ohio. With the victory, WMU advances to face top-seeded Bowling Green in the semifinal round on Friday night.

The win was Western Michigan's 30th of the season, getting the Brown and Gold to the 30-win mark for the first time since 2006. It also ended a three-game slide in the MAC Tournament for WMU, which collected its first tournament victory since 2017.

FINAL SCORE: No. 2 Western Michigan 8, No. 3 Ball State 0
LOCATION:Crushers Stadium (Avon, Ohio)
RECORDS:Western Michigan (30-21) | Ball State (33-22-1)
W: Brady Miller (6-5)| L: Keegan Johnson (8-3)

Ball State had a runner in scoring position in each of the first three innings against Brady Miller, but the right-hander responded each time to keep the Cardinals off of the scoreboard. After back-to-back, one-out singles in the third, the redshirt senior proceeded to retire the next 10 in a row and 14 of the final 15 he faced.

The righty fired seven scoreless frames and limited Ball State to four hits while racking up six strikeouts to pick up his team-leading sixth victory of the season and the 20th of his Western Michigan career. Miller is just the sixth pitcher to record 20 or more career wins for the Brown and Gold.

Behind Miller, Luke Thelen breezed through the eighth and ninth innings, fanning four of the six Cardinals he faced to complete Western Michigan's second consecutive shutout and league-leading sixth of the season. The six shutouts are tied for fourth-most in NCAA Division I in 2024 and are tied for third-most in a single season in school history.

The Broncos staked Miller to an early lead, as Dylan Nevar launched a solo shot to right with two outs in the bottom of the first, his team-leading 15th of the season. The long ball makes Nevar just the fifth Bronco to have 15 or more homers in a single season. It was also the redshirt junior's 28th career home run, tying him for second-most all-time.
Another two-out home run helped WMU add to its lead in the second, as Grady Mee hit a towering three-run shot down the left field line to make it 4-0.

The contest remained 4-0 until the bottom of the sixth, when Mee drove an RBI single to the opposite field with two outs to make it a five-run cushion. Mee tied his career high with four RBIs for the evening.

Josh Swinehart delivered an opposite field knock with two outs to drive in a run in the seventh, and Western Michigan then capped the evening's scoring in the eighth on a Cade Sullivan sacrifice fly and a Nevar RBI single. Nevar's 65 RBIs are now alone in second-place in a single-season in program history, three shy of Tanner Allison's school-record 68 in 2017.

WMU's eight runs on Thursday pushed its season total to 385, making the 2024 Broncos the second-highest scoring team in school history. Nevar and Mee's blasts also moved Western Michigan's home run total to the second-highest in program history, with the season total now at 62.

With its victory on Thursday, the Broncos advance to face No. 1 seed Bowling Green on Friday night for a berth in Saturday night's MAC Championship Game. First pitch between WMU and BGSU is slated for 6 pm on Friday evening. All games of the 2024 MAC Tournament will be streamed on ESPN+.